Same Old Scavenge (w/ write-up)

Here is my take on travisrchance's excellent Dirty Hands 3.0 deck. I have only made a few changes that reduce its responsiveness to increase its consistency. These changes make the deck a bit more novice friendly (fewer decisions) while getting a bit more productivity out of Exile's identity (more recursion).

First, I wanted to play 3 Femme Fatale instead of 2 Femmes and a Mimic. While this means that I am paying 4 to break an Architect (ouch), it gives me more quality targets for my Scavenges.

Second, I want to get a bit more mileage out of Exile's ability, so I have squeezed in 2 Same Old Thing. These replace Escher (which is amazing with the Cyber-Cypher and Femme--throw ice around and then get into R&D for 3 credits late game) and the Rachel Beckman (I play against a lot of Snares!). Paying two clicks to fire off a Freelance Coding Contract late in the game is never a bad play; paying two clicks to play a "4th" Scavenge can set up a run on a remote. Etc. Most games I have played, I JUST WANT MOAR SCAVENGE.

Third, I replaced Grappling Hook with Retrieval Run. This is a hard call--since Grappling Hook gives another way to get through a surprise Archer, or a way to beat a Janus. Originally, I had squeezed in a Crescentus to combo with the Hook, shutdown a problematic piece of ice, and/or clear the path into R&D. Without it, and Sharpshooter, one must always, always know where the Faerie is and have a way to go get it in case of emergencies. If you play against a lot of Archer's or Toybox's, then I would say -1 Retrieval Run, -1 SoT/Leprechaun and +2 Crescentus is probably a good call.

But in exchange for this extra caution, you get one more way to 1) cheap a Femme back into play, 2) get a D4vid back, or 3) get an SMC out of the heap. Playing this card early in the game can get the corp to waste valuable ice on archives; or, late in the game, it can be a Femme for 3 credits. In his write-up, travis argues that Exile: Streethawk makes more sense than Kate "Mac" McCaffrey: Digital Tinker: I think that argument becomes obviously stronger the more you can play cards from the heap: hence Same Old Thing and Retrieval Run.

Fourth, Nerve Agent and the extra influence from Rachel Beckman became a Sneakdoor Beta. This could also be a second Faerie. Or an Imp. Or a Medium. My thoughts: because this deck puts such incredible pressure on R&D and remotes, the corp usually ignores Archives. Perhaps, if they see a Retrieval Run and an Same Old Thing, they might put a piece of ice there. But they won't actually want to rez it, and probably won't have the credits to do so. A surprise Sneakdoor can give 2-3 absolutely free runs on the hand late in the game (install - scavenge a Femme/run - run - run). Additionally, it probably requires that the corp invest some/more/better ice on Archives. Run one more time, make them waste credits, Scavenge the Sneakdoor into something useful (hey, another Lady!), and carry on. There's been many match-ups when I could just ignore the hand and wish this was an Imp to go trash some assets. There's a lot of times that I can get into R&D (even when it is 4 ice deep) for 5 money. A Medium would pile up really, really fast. But I want to have some way to pressure the hand, even if it isn't standard "multi-access."

Fifth, I squeezed in a second Leprechaun to help with MU issues. This is a novice crutch: there's many times I want to Clone Chip an SMC to go grab a Cyber-Cypher, but don't have the MU to install the SMC. Having a Leprechaun in play allows me a lot more flexibility with SMC late in the game. Often, I will have a Magnum out from 1st/2nd turn, two femmes out, and then a Leprechaun with an SMC and a Cyber-Cypher on it. Two Leprechauns mean I don't really care about whether I see my Astrolabe (and I almost wonder if I shouldn't just run 3 Leprechaun here to increase the credits on Freelance Coding Contract--but Astrolabe is just so good against so many corp decks).

Sixth, since I have the extra recursion, I am playing around with one Torch in place of a second Cyber-Cypher. This is probably a huge mistake, since there's no way I am going to want to use a Clone Chip or an SMC to grab it, but I cannot resist the temptation of a Torch for 3 credits.

I still hate Inti, but it is still here to deal with the obvious: Wraparound and Ice Wall. I want to make this another Cerberus "Lady" H1, or even a Snowball, but that puts more economic pressure on the deck vs. FA--if I cut the Mimic, then I don't think I can also afford to cut the Inti. Unfortunately.